Lawmakers confront BP CEO over Gulf oil disaster

BP CEO Tony Hayward prepares to testify on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, June 17, 2010, before the House Oversight and Investigations subcommittee hearing on "the role of BP in the Deepwater Horizon Explosion and oil spill. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

/ AP

BP CEO Tony Hayward prepares to testify on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, June 17, 2010, before the House Oversight and Investigations subcommittee hearing on "the role of BP in the Deepwater Horizon Explosion and oil spill. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

BP CEO Tony Hayward prepares to testify on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, June 17, 2010, before the House Oversight and Investigations subcommittee hearing on "the role of BP in the Deepwater Horizon Explosion and oil spill. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (/ AP)

FREDERIC J. FROMMER and MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press Writers

BP's humbled CEO sat grim-faced Thursday as a House chairman accused him of being oblivious to the risks of the company's deep water operations. Tony Hayward waited his turn to tell Congress he was "deeply sorry" for his company's catastrophic oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., told the BP executive that in his committee's review of 30,000 items, there was "not a single e-mail or document that you paid even the slightest attention to the dangers at this well."

A day after agreeing to a $20 billion victims' compensation fund, Hayward was to tell Congress in prepared testimony that he was "personally devastated" by the April explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that triggered the giant spill - and that he understands the anger that Americans feel toward him and his company.

Before beginning his own testimony, Hayward was buffeted by scathing criticism from lawmakers from both parties.

Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, the senior Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee, said he agreed with the call of Democrats on the panel for answers. But Barton accused the White House of conducting a "$20 billion shakedown" by requiring oil giant BP to establish a fund to compensate those hurt by the Gulf Coast oil spill.

"I'm ashamed of what happened in the White House" on Wednesday, Barton said.

But Rep. Ed Markey disagreed, saying it was "not a slush fund, not a shakedown. ... It was the government of the United States working to protect the most vulnerable citizens that we have in our country right now, the residents of the Gulf."

"It's BP's spill," the Massachusetts Democrat said, "but it is America's ocean, and it is America's citizens who are being harmed. ... No, this is not a shakedown of the company."

Rep. Michael Burgess, a Texas Republican, said that BP "appears to have taken their eye off the ball."

Some of the sharpest criticism came from Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich. "We are not small people. But we wish to get our lives back," he told Hayward. "I'm sure you'll get your life back, and with a golden parachute to England."

It was a reference to Hayward's much-criticized earlier remark that some day he hoped to get "my life back" and to comments on the White House driveway on Wednesday by BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg that "we care about the small people" of the Gulf Coast.

Hayward sipped a beverage and jotted notes as one lawmaker after another scorched him.

A group of protesters milled in the hallway outside the hearing room, including Diane Wilson, 61, a fourth-generation fisher from Seadrift, Texas, near the Gulf Coast. Wilson, appearing with a black-stained hand, said she wanted to send a message: "Hayward should go to jail."

She was joined by Ann Wright, 63, of Honolulu, Hawaii, who wore a BP hard hat, overalls and sunglasses adorned with dollar signs.

Waxman opened the hearing with rare praise for the oil giant. "Yesterday, BP pledged to establish a $20 billion escrow account and to suspend its dividend payments for the rest of the year. I'm sure these were not easy decisions for you, but they were the right ones, and I commend you for them," he told the embattled CEO.

But then the gloves came off. "When you became CEO of BP, you promised to focus like a laser on safe and reliable operations," Waxman said. "We wanted to know what you had done to keep this promise."

"We could find no evidence that you paid any attention to the tremendous risks BP was taking. We've reviewed 30,000 pages of documents from BP, including your e-mails. There is not a single e- mail or document that shows you paid even the slightest attention to the dangers at this well."

Waxman asserted that Hayward and his top deputies "were apparently oblivious to what was happening" and had been ignoring danger signs on the well in the days before it exploded.